Sixteen
people will be punished for their involvement in the October
airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz,
Afghanistan that resulted from human errors and technology failures,
according to US Central Command official.

On
Friday morning, Army General Joseph L. Votel, commander of US Central
Command (CENTCOM) presented
the results of the military investigation into the bombing of a
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) facility
that claimed lives of 42.

“The
investigation ultimately concluded that this tragic incident was
caused by a combination of human errors, compounded by process and
equipment failures,”
Votel said.

The probe
found that the operation was launched 69 minutes earlier than
planned and the crew did not get all of the preparatory information
because of the moved-up timeline, including the “identification
of no-strike areas.”
In addition, he said that the satellite radio signal failed.

When
they arrived at the location called in by the US Special Forces that
were partnered with an Afghan special operation ground force, they
received fire from a surface-to-air missile. The crew then flew
several miles away from the city center, where they received the grid
coordinates of a Taliban-controlled building.

However, they were
directed to an empty field, “which
was obviously not the correct location,”
Votel said. The aircrew then attempted to find their intended target
in the nearby area.
“Instead, they found the Doctors Without Borders Trauma Center that
generally matched the physical description of the building relayed
over the radio by the ground force."

Votel
said the crew mistakenly believed that they were firing on intended
target, a Taliban compound located 400 meters away, not the protected
trauma center.

“I
want to emphasize that the trauma center was a protected facility and
was on a no-strike list. Our forces did not receive fire from the
trauma center during the incident, nor did the investigation find
that insurgents were using it as a base for operations,”
he said.

He
also noted that people on the ground experienced "fatigued
from [five] days of fighting, still engaged with an aggressive enemy
and running low on supplies,”
which also contributed to the mistake.

Army
General John Campbell, then the US Forces-Afghanistan commander,
directed the investigation, and took action against 12 of the
personnel still in Afghanistan, including the general officer. The
actions included suspension and removal from command, letters of
reprimand, formal counseling and extensive retraining. Five personnel
had already returned to the US, so Campbell forwarded on the
investigation to Votel, who took action against four of the five
service members by issuing “letters
of reprimand and admonishment”
and referring the flight crew to a USAF flight evaluation board “to
assess their suitability for future flight duties.”

Votel
referred the fifth service member to the commander of the US Army
special operations command, who issued “a
written reprimand and directed recertification in the service
member’s job specialty.”

“From
a senior commander’s perspective, the measures taken against these
individuals were appropriate to address the errors that they made,”
he said, noting that these “adverse
administrative actions”
can carry severe repercussions on the careers and professional
qualifications of these individuals that could include denial of
promotion or advancement, and possible separation from the service.

Votel
did not disclose the identities of those punished “to
protect the privacy of the individuals and because some of them
remain assigned to overseas, sensitive or routinely deployable
units.”

The
investigation found that, while the 16 service members failed to
comply with the rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict,
none of the failures are considered to be war crimes because the
facility was not intentionally targeted.

An
earlier report from
MSF said that the trauma center was “fully
functioning” at
the time of the airstrikes, with 105 patients admitted and surgeries
taking place, according to the findings of its investigation.

“Patients
burned in their beds, medical staff were decapitated and lost limbs,
and others were shot by the circling AC-130 gunship while fleeing the
burning building. At least 30 MSF staff and patients were killed,” it
states.

Defense
Secretary Ash Carter is expected to issue guidance later on
Friday designed to avoid similar problems in the future.

Votel
kept reminding reporters throughout the press conference that the
airstrike took place during "an
intense combat situation."

'Human error': No criminal charges for US army personnel over Kunduz hospital bombing